Saturday October 6th members of the boys and girls cross country teams traveled to Thetford, Vermont to compete in the prestigious 22nd Annual Woods Trail Run. It was the first trip to Vermont for the Rockets and was planned into the schedule to give the runners an opportunity to compete on one of the most challenging cross country courses in all of New England as well as simulate what the Rockets hope to experience in November at Northfield Mountain for All-States. As the first races on the day began, the clouds looked heavy and dark in the sky and drops of rain splashed down on the course threatening to turn the 5k circuit into a mud bath.
The first race on the day for the Rockets was the 2nd seed girls race which saw junior Haley Rayment and senior Marie Leirvaag cover the unrelenting course in 26:02 and 26:27 respectively. When asked by her teammates how the race was, Rayment alluded to the difficulty of the course and of Morty's Monster, a 600 meter long giant of a hill at 3 kilometers in, by saying "don't think about the hill until you get to it... it was fun though".
Next up for the girls was the 1st seed race which saw the Lady Rockets in a position they've become familiar with this season; finishing high up in the team results. Senior captain Caroline Turner and Freshman Margie Cullen worked well together during the race and moved up through the field. At the end, Cullen outsprinted her teammate to take 15th place overall in 20:55, while the veteran captain finished one spot and four seconds behind. Freshmen Julianna Donovan and Sarah Armstrong continue to run well together and finished in the front of the pack placing 24th and 25th respectively with excellent times of 21:18 and 21:19. And closing out the scoring for the Rockets was senior captain Hallie Armstrong again running a controlled effort to cross the line in 67th place in 22:27. Behind the top five, came sophomore Katie Horton (22:51), junior Rachel Blaustein (22:53) and sophomore Claire Connors (24:34). By finishing 4 runners in the top 25, Needham closed the point gap to Amherst Regional (the only team that beat them at the Amherst Invitational two weeks earlier) by scoring 144 to Amherst's 123 and finishing 4th in the team standings out of a total of 41!
As the day wore on, the rain got heavier and the course conditions worsened. By the time the 1st seed boys race began, patches of the course were mud-slicked and saturated with water. The Rockets knowing what they were up against, took a conservative approach to the race and started out at a controlled pace. Junior Adrian Amaya running with the top group, hit the one mile mark at 5:17. Behind him ran senior Tyler Hagen and junior Tommy Kelley both passing the first split in 5:30. Amaya kept up the steady pace working hard during the second half to finish 9th overall in a stellar time of 17:28. Hagen too ran a very gutsy race finishing in 17th just 11 seconds behind Amaya. Meanwhile, Kelley and freshman John Benner worked through the course taking the uphills in stride and the downhills at ferocious speeds finishing 44th in 18:20 and 51st in 18:28. Rounding out the Needham squad were junior Alex Elman (18:51), sophomore Liam Walsh (18:52), seniors Brendan Gillis (19:30) and Zak Heier (19:33) and freshman Alex Turner (19:48). Well after the race was finished and the boys' team had taken their cool down, the race organizers were announcing the top team finishes and somewhat to their surprise, the boys snagged a 5th place out of the 51 teams represented!
For full results go to: www.lancertiming.com
Race video: http://vt.milesplit.com/meets/101573-22nd-annual-woods-trail-run
For race photos go to: http://public.fotki.com/dugaut/woods-trail-run/
Next up for Needham is a double dual meet with Natick and Norwood on Wednesday October 10th. The meet will be held at Elm Bank in Natick and is scheduled to begin with a co-ed JV race at 4:00.
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